Frontiersman, May 1999

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Frontiersman, May 1999

No Refuge
Sam Aurelius Milam III
It's getting harder to escape from the escalating national ID system. On Saturday, February 27, 1999, Jan bought groceries at the Waremart food store in Idaho Falls, Idaho. She's been shopping there for many years and is well known there. As payment for the groceries, she presented a paycheck issued by a company for which she had temporarily worked. She has cashed such checks there before without any problem. This time, however, there was a problem. Not only did the store personnel demand a "driver's" license (an outrageous requirement in itself, since they aren't traffic cops and she wasn't driving), they also demanded that Jan submit to fingerprinting. She refused. They cashed the check anyway, but they warned her that it's now their policy to demand fingerprints. They won't cash her checks in the future unless she submits to fingerprinting.
This isn't New York City or Los Angeles. It's Idaho Falls, Idaho, a little place where people might be tempted to think that things are different. Those people would be wrong. The national ID system, and the tyranny that it enables, is everywhere, and it's getting worse.

Another Measure of Credibility
Sam Aurelius Milam III

Throughout my formal "education", I was taught that the metric system is better than the inch system. Eventually, I began to wonder why. Sure, it's easier to convert between units in the metric system, but is that "better"? Does Pepsi taste better from a 2 liter bottle than from a quart bottle? Is a metric bolt stronger than an inch bolt? I don't think so. I can't see that I'm any better off either with or without the metric system. It seems to me that either system will work just as well as the other. Maybe it's more convenient for teachers to teach in the metric system, but don't forget that the USA won World War II using things built with the inch system. If you like the metric system, then use it. However, just because a guy with a degree says it's better doesn't necessarily make it so.

Frontiersman@ida.net

Frontiersman, 479 E. 700 N., Firth, Idaho 83236
Also see The Pharos Connection at http://www.ida.net/users/pharos/

May 1999

Page 1

Letters to the Editor
Hi Sam

My best way to help you is written within the pages of T.A. If I were floating in abundance I would probably have you here with us and all you'd have to do is keep coming up with those same challenging ideas and help on the grounds while you'd be fully sheltered, fed and probably entertained. I'm not there yet but if it comes to that I'm sure you'd enjoy the opportunity. In the meantime I invite you to keep in touch. Who knows what the future holds?

From The Grand Barn I send you my best. Keep the light on!

— Peter; Vankleek Hill, Ontario

Peter Riden is the publisher and editor of The Affiliate and the owner of The Grand Barn. The address is 777 Barb Road, Vankleek Hill, Ontario, K0B 1R0, Canada. The e-mail address is Affiliat@the-grand-barn.com. The website is http://www.the-grand-barn.com.

— editor

[Received by e-mail]

The following is a response to an excerpt from a letter from Elliot, of N. Merrick, New York, printed on page 3 of the January 1999 Frontiersman. The excerpt follows:

".... The deists wanted separation of church & state, based upon the history of religious persecution in England, which had been the reason for the founding of the Puritan colonies in New England, & this was made law in the 1st Amendment...."

It has occurred to me that the separation of church and state that has been recently put into place by the government is to keep prayer out of school. This is just another step in the incremental increase in government control of our lives. Parents have allowed the government to educate their children to such an extent that the parents no longer take an interest in the curriculum of the schools. The children become what the government wants them to become. The government needs criminals to justify large police forces. The government needs drug dealers to justify the immense expenditures on the war on drugs. The government can create all the criminals and drug dealers it wants only if there is no prayer and no morals taught in school. Still have doubts? Why did they retain the "IN GOD WE TRUST" on the back of each note when they redesigned the Federal Reserve notes? Why does the government continue to retain chaplains? Is a prayer still said before each session of Congress? Why were the schools the only thing effected by this new separation of church and state?

— Sir James the Bold; Sacramento, California

It isn't possible to prevent children from praying in the government schools, if they want to pray. The sanction of the schools isn't a prerequisite to prayer, and it isn't necessary that there be an officially administered school prayer. If the children want to pray, then they can simply do it. God will hear them

— editor

Dear Sam -

The problem with US capitalism is that it's rigged. I think that I myself could be a very good capitalist (& a liberal & libertarian one) if it weren't. Given that the system is rigged, the Libertarian party's statements about campaign financing simply reinforce the rigged system. As for Don Cormier's & your ideas about campaign reform, they are excellent from a theoretical point of view, but how practical are they? I don't know. This is an area that is so corrupt that I wouldn't venture a guess as to what a practical improvement might be — & as we know, when practical solutions become impossible, collapse or revolution becomes inevitable. Anyway, it's clear that something has to be done.

While pollution is a major threat to the survival of the planet, I wonder if focusing on CO₂ isn't merely a distraction from the much more serious toxins which are being dumped on the planet. Less toxic manufacturing & energy production are much more crucial than the dangers of CO₂. Society needs to change direction politically, socially, economically. Under the current system, a sustainable future is practically impossible. With a change in attitude, geared toward clean technology & energy, CO₂would be reduced along with the much more deadly toxic wastes. As for global warming, it's happened before. People move around a lot today. They could move inland over the course of decades. Small ocean life with short life spans can evolve fast enough to adapt to changes in the balance of the natural components of the ecosystem, such as mineral concentration in the ocean. It's the dumping of unnatural toxic wastes, & of the bodily wastes of millions of land dwelling humans into the ocean, which decimates ocean species. Man-produced global warming might be inconvenient to man, but as I say, it also happens naturally, & life would adapt to it. It's the unnatural human-produced toxins, including

May 1999
Page 2

Frontiersman, 479 E. 700 N., Firth, Idaho 83236
Also see The Pharos Connection at http://www.ida.net/users/pharos/

Frontiersman@ida.net

nuclear toxins, which are the more serious threat. Toxins are dumped on Indian reservations, in minority neighborhoods, in the Third World. This effects the lives & health of working class populations, & it also effects natural species much more than CO₂ does. On that path, eventually it will hit the upper classes as well. But beyond all that, society must change, for the sake of a sustainable future, & for the sake of a more human life. The insanity of slavery called freedom, & planetary suicidal insanity, go hand in hand.

— Elliot; N. Merrick, New York

I printed my favorite suggestion for election reform in the November 1994 issue of the Frontiersman. The article is titled Loser's Game. Copies are available upon request.

— editor

Hello

Thank you for keeping me on your mailings. I find your pub. enlightening and refreshing. Keep up the good work!

— Robert; Mariposa, California

The handwriting of this note was a bit difficult to read. My apologies to Robert if I misread anything.

— editor

Dear Sam & Jan

.... There has been way too much regarding Kosovo, and it continues to amaze me that people do not have a "clue", even though the analogies are plain as the end of one's nose.... I just wish that those who know the "big picture" would speak out more, and start making a little bit of a "fuss" — ie: if other countries can have their freedom fighters, why can't we? Or isn't that truth of our total enslavement been documented?! It's all there on James Montgomery's disk.

— Eric; Tehachapi, California

A docile and unarmed population is a prescription for atrocities and attempted genocide. We would all be well advised to stay armed, however great the cost.

— editor

Hi Sam!

Global warming? Bullshit! I think that you've been bamboozled by this global warming techno-babble crap -- epecially the myth that the Kyoto Protocol will do something (anything?) substantial to "prevent" global warming. I highly recommend the website of the Citizens for a Sound Economy. They have some neat stuff on their website about some other important issues as well.

— Sanazay Bob; San Jose, California

[Received by e-mail]
The Fantasy Machine: [February 1999]

You wrote, "...we can't get more energy out of a process than we put into it and that, in practice, we can't get that much." Energy is not lost or gained in any process. The energy may not be in a useful form, but it still exists. That does not invalidate your analogy as long as it is understood that the energy is not destroyed, only converted into something useless to the desired result. ... there is only one process where one hundred percent of the energy input into the process is gotten out of the process in the desired form. A heater. In most processes, heat is considered a useless byproduct. In a heater, it is the desired product. This leads me to ponder upon entropy. And, before you tell me that all this is irrelevant, consider your original statement that energy is lost. I believe you know better, but I enjoyed writing this. So as not to waste the effort I am sending it to you to enjoy, rage over, or ignore as you please.

Your argument is compelling, but I do not see the parallel to the analogy. The United States Dollar is a variable unit of exchange that is traded on the open currency exchange. Its value is determined by those that trade in the relative values of currencies. You will see the currency exchange rates if you ever watch the economic news broadcasts.
Drug War Suggestion: [February 1999]

Where would one be able to acquire the seed and who would be wealthy enough to afford the capital to invest in such a scheme with no hope for financial gain?

— Sir James the Bold; Sacramento, California

The United States dollar isn't traded on the currency exchanges. The Federal Reserve dollar is traded on the currency exchanges. The value of the United States dollar is fixed at one ounce of silver. The value of a Federal Reserve dollar is variable and unpredictable. It's a fools fancy to use Federal Reserve dollars to measure the value of anything. In fact, value should never be measured or compared using any kind of national monetary unit. The value of any such unit is subject to the whims of bureaucracies. Value should be measured and compared in units of gold or silver.

— editor

Frontiersman@ida.net

Frontiersman, 479 E. 700 N., Firth, Idaho 83236
Also see The Pharos Connection at http://www.ida.net/users/pharos/

May 1999

Page 3

Frontiersman
479 E. 700 N.
Firth, Idaho 83236

Intolerable repression
accumulates
by
tolerable increments.

Buck Hunter Shoots Off His Mouth
Dear Buck

What's the best age for a woman to get married?

— Getting Older

Dear Getting Older

About 9 months younger than she was when she had her first child.

Bumper Stickers
Forwarded by Sir John the Generous
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
Jesus is coming, everyone look busy.
A bartender is just a pharmacist with a limited inventory.
My cat almost always blinks when hit on the head with a hammer.
I used to have a handle on life, but it broke.

Acknowledgments
•     My thanks to my reviewers for their assistance.
•     My thanks to Robert, of Mariposa, California, for his contribution.
•     My thanks to The Affiliate, of Vankleek Hill, Ontario for regularly printing reviews of the Frontiersman.
•     My thanks to Sir Donald the Elusive for paying the production costs of this newsletter and for his additional contributions.

— editor

Terman's Law of Innovation
If you want a track team to win the high jump, you find one person who can jump seven feet, not seven people who can jump one foot.

— from Another Compendium of Wit and Wisdom

Frontiersman

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Back Issues — Back issues or extra copies of this newsletter are available upon request.

Reprint Policy — Permission is hereby granted to reproduce this newsletter in its entirety or to reproduce material from it, provided that the reproduction is accurate and that proper credit is given. Please note that I do not have the authority to give permission to reprint material that I have reprinted from other publications. For that permission, you must go to the original source. I would appreciate receiving a courtesy copy of any document or publication in which you reprint my material.

Submissions — I solicit letters, articles, and cartoons for the newsletter, but I don't pay for them. Short items are more likely to be printed. I suggest that letters and articles be shorter than 500 words, but that's flexible depending on space available and the content of the piece. I give credit for all items printed unless the author specifies otherwise.

Payment — This newsletter isn't for sale. If you care to make a voluntary contribution, you may do so. The continued existence of the newsletter will depend, in part, on such contributions. I accept cash and U.S. postage stamps. I don't accept checks, money orders, anything that will smell bad by the time it arrives, or anything that requires me to provide ID or a signature to receive it. In case anybody is curious, I also accept gold, silver, platinum, etc. I'm sure you get the idea.

— Sam Aurelius Milam III, editor

May 1999
Page 4

Frontiersman, 479 E. 700 N., Firth, Idaho 83236
Also see The Pharos Connection at http://www.ida.net/users/pharos/

Frontiersman@ida.net

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